Brandon Roy is averaging 40.5 minutes a game this season to lead the league. Team’s stars usually average 35 give or take a little. Pau Gasol is at 37.4 per game this season for the Lakers, Rudy Gay 39.2, Russell Westbrook 36.4, Paul Pierce 37.2. Then there are guys like Beno Udrh getting 36 per game or Marcus Camby at 30 (at age 36).

Kevin Love is playing just 26.4 minutes per game, despite that he leading Minnesota in both scoring and rebounding. Love is playing more than any other member of the Wolves — Kurt Rambis has gone with an almost college approach where eight guys are getting between 20 and 26 minutes a game — but not as much as other stars on other teams.

While he has been saying all the right things, the lack of run has frustrated Kevin Love, according to ESPN’s Chris Broussard at TrueHoop. He says Love is not alone and quotes scouts and front office people from around the league who don’t get Minnesota’s game plan.

“You have to be on crystal meth not to give Love more minutes on that team,” one scout told me. “It makes no sense.”

Love’s defense usually gets the blame (it did here from comments who said he deserved the limited 24 minutes in the season opener). Love is not a great defender and in an ideal world would be paired with a shot-blocking center (a Marcus Camby type, for example). Minnesota has paired him with slumping Darko Milicic.

But if you’re limiting Love and all the offense and rebounding, you better be getting a lot more defense out of who you’re bringing in. For the Wolves, that is Anthony Tolliver. Last season at the four, Tolliver’s PER against was 1.4 better than Love. He is a better defender. But Love’s offensive PER was 8.2 better.

Those numbers would not be identical this season but it bears out what the eyes are telling us — any defensive improvement is more than offset by the offense lost.

Which is just another way of saying, “Why isn’t Kevin Love getting more minutes?”

Anyone who watched the Thunder’s win over the Raptors Sunday afternoon in Toronto — especially the final few minutes — thought it was not referee Marc Davis and crew’s finest hour. There were missed calls and three-straight ejections of Raptors players, which all seemed rather hair-trigger (especially coach Dwane Casey, who was tossed for something a fan behind him said).

According to the report, there was only one missed call in the final two minutes: Carmelo Anthony held Pascal Siakam as a pass came to him with 11.7 seconds left, and that should have been called.

What about the play that set DeMar DeRozan off and ultimately got him ejected, the drive to the basket with 33 seconds left (and the Raptors down two) where DeRozan thought Corey Brewer fouled him? The report said that was a good no call:

DeRozan (TOR) starts his drive and Brewer (OKC) moves laterally in his path and there is contact. The contact is incidental as both players attempt to perform normal basketball moves….

RHH shows Brewer (OKC) make contact with the ball and the part of DeRozan’s (TOR) hand that is on the ball. The hand is considered “part of the ball” when it is in contact with the ball and therefore, contact on that part of the hand by a defender while it is in contact with the ball is not illegal.

(I didn’t see it that way, I think the contact was more than incidental, and to me looking at the replay Brewer catches some wrist and impedes the shot in a way that was not legal. Just my two cents.)

The report does not cover the ejections, which are reviewed by league operations but not part of this report.

Three thoughts out of all this:

1) Raptors fans/management/players have every right to feel the calls went against them in this game. As for calls always going against them — as DeRozan complained about after the game — 29 other teams and fan bases are convinced the officials have it out for them, too. I never bought that.

2) The Raptors didn’t lose this game solely because of the officiating. Russell Westbrook was clutch down the stretch, the Thunder were part of it, and the Raptors had other issues, too (Serge Ibaka had a rough game, for example).

3) This loss also does not say a thing about the Raptors in the postseason (even if they went a little too much isolation at the end) — this was their third game in four days, they looked tired and flat at the end. That will not be the case in the playoffs.

Butler is chomping at the bit to return from his knee injury. He sat on the Timberwolves’ bench during their loss to the Rockets last night wearing what appeared to be typical attire for a sidelined player. But dig deeper, and…

Marc Stein of The New York Times:

There's only one @JimmyButler (Exhibit Infinity): Butler sat on the Wolves' bench last night for the first time since his recent injury and word is he wore a distinctly Jimmy item under his blazer and t-shirt … his game jersey

Cleveland needs Love back. The Cavaliers went 11-9 without him in this stretch (and 6-7 since the All-Star break) with an offense that has still been top 10 in the NBA but a defense that is holding them back. The Cavaliers’ defense is just not on the same page right now, and the more time the regular rotations guys get to play together, the better they should be before the playoffs start.

As Love rounds into form, the Cavaliers have to figure out their rotations. Does Love start Love next to Larry Nance Jr., or does Nance come off the bench again? Probably the latter, but the Cavaliers will toy with the rotations (and do that more when Tristan Thompson returns).